Well, this is a surprise. Several websites have a preview up of Apple's next Mac OS X release - it's called Mountain Lion, and continues the trend of bringing over functionality from iOS to Mac OS X. Lots of cool stuff in here we've all seen before on iPhones and iPads, including one very, very controversial feature: Gatekeeper. Starting with Mac OS X 10.8, Apple's desktop operating system will be restricted to Mac App Store and Apple-signed applications by default (with an opt-out switch), following in Windows 8's footsteps.

You caveat it at the end, but the real problem is when you say stupid things like "Sure our Windows and Mac machines will be locked down... But that's why we buy them."

No, no one buys a computer because it is locked down. You don't either, you say you do, but that is because you didn't think before posting.

People buy a computer because it is useful and nigh required to do many things.

I buy Macs because of the decent hardware and the still-better-than-the-alternatives interface. But I'm not buying in to the Mac AppStore or iCloud and if either is required in 10.8, I'm on my last Mac.

I'm with you 100%.
I realized this was the direction Apple was taking even before they announced and was sad that it meant I was probably on my last Mac also, because I liked using them up until Lion came out.

Apple dropping good support/development of FCP Studio and Aperture, combined with moving toward dropping its Pro line of PCs, and the features dropped from MobileMe in iCloud, indicated to me that Apple is currently focused on mainstream consumers and not commercial environments. By the time Apple realizes it wants serious corporate penetration, and executes upon it, I predict that many corporations will have moved on to Linux/Windows 8/cloud as done by Amazon, and so passed on OS X/iCloud.

I'd add as enveloping perspective that I think that tablets are going to replace many current commercial PC based applications that can be improved by being more decentralized (this is currently happening with iPads in cabins replacing internet PC style cafes for cruise ship network access, for example). I make this comment because PCs are no longer the bottom of the chain, and tablets are undercutting them, just as networked PCs did to minicomputers and mainframes. Companies like Apple have to factor this in to their future plans.